This time there’s no shutdown, it damaged his polling.
But yet he believes he must keep on extolling
The promise he made to his base with conviction
And prove it was more than political fiction.

But what is the problem we’re suddenly facing
That demands a response that is so all-embracing?
Though terrorists still can provoke times of crisis
Trump tells us there’s not much remaining of ISIS.

No Russian troops march to attack our defenses,
Kim Jong-Un, it seems, isn’t out of his senses.
Economists warn us our deficit’s growing
But right now employment is simply not slowing.

Nonetheless we are warned of a threat of disorder
Contained in our thousand mile southernmost border.
Those central American caravans nearing
Play into today’s anti-immigrant fearing.

That is why, Trump informs us, he made his decision
Which he cloaks in the language of racial derision
While basing his action on figures inflated,
By the dozens of millions we’ve been inundated.

Let me make it quite clear that I base my objection
Not so much on the key, constitutional question.
There may well be some issues on which it’s essential
To assign to the matter more power presidential.

But here is the fact that’s beyond all negation
A new kind of peril is facing our nation.
How should we define this most dangerous crisis?
Say “Donald J. Trump”, and that answer suffices.

Posted on Monday, February 18, 2019 (Archive on Sunday, November 14, 2021)